Knowledge Hub
Plain-English answers to landowner questions.
Strength built it. Knowledge preserves it.
Start with the DST
What a Delaware Statutory Trust is, how it compares, and where it does not fit.
DST Basics · 9 min read
What is a DST and How Can It Help Property Owners?
A plain-English guide to Delaware Statutory Trusts for rural property owner families. How a DST defers capital gains, generates potential monthly income, and simplifies estate planning.
DST Basics · 7 min read
Delaware Statutory Trust vs Deferred Sales Trust
Two completely different products share the letters DST. A Delaware Statutory Trust is a 1031 structure the IRS recognized. A Deferred Sales Trust is a separate installment sale strategy. Here is how a landowner tells them apart.
DST Basics · 7 min read
DSTs vs REITs: What Are the Differences for Landowners?
DSTs let landowners defer taxes, claim depreciation, and own real property, advantages REITs can't match for long-term wealth and legacy planning.
DST Basics · 6 min read
How Farmers and Ranchers Should Choose Among DST Options
There is no single best DST. There is the right one for your sale, found by an advisor who looks across the market and runs independent due diligence. Here is how a farm or ranch seller should evaluate the options.
DST Basics · 7 min read
Inside a DST Portfolio:
DSTs hold institutional real estate including multifamily, industrial, self-storage, student housing, 55+ communities, and net-lease retail. Here's a plain-English tour of each property type and what makes it tick.
Risk · 7 min read
What Are the Risks of Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs) That Every Landowner Should Understand?
DSTs can be smart tools for tax deferral and legacy planning, but they carry risks. Illiquidity, sponsor risk, market risk, fees, and how Iron Ridge helps manage them.
Risk · 7 min read
How DSTs Are Regulated:
Delaware Statutory Trusts are securities. They sit inside the SEC, FINRA, and broker-dealer regulatory framework, with audited financials and independent third-party due diligence on every offering. Here's what protects investors.
Risk · 9 min read
How DST Investments Are Underwritten: A Comprehensive Q&A Guide
How Iron Ridge Advisors performs DST due diligence, sponsor operating history, audited financials, property analysis, and independent third-party diligence reports.
DST Basics · 6 min read
What Happens at the End of a DST Hold Period?
When a DST sponsor sells the underlying property in years 5 to 10, you have three options: roll into another DST, take cash and pay the deferred tax, or convert to a public REIT through a 721 UPREIT exchange.
1031 Exchange · 6 min read
Why a Debt-Free Investor Might Embrace DST Leverage: The Case for 50% Non-Recourse Debt
Even debt-averse investors may benefit from 50% non-recourse DST leverage, more depreciation shelter, the potential for monthly income, zero personal liability.
Farmers and Ranchers
The tax bill on a land sale and the ways a farm or ranch family can plan for it.
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
The True Cost of Selling Your Land: Federal, State, and Depreciation Taxes
Most landowners underestimate what they'll owe at sale. A breakdown of federal capital gains, state taxes, and depreciation recapture, and how a 1031 DST defers all three.
Tax Strategy · 5 min read
Why Wouldn't I Just Sell, Pay the Taxes, and Move On? The Rule of 72
Selling and paying taxes may cost 30 to 40% of your wealth. The Rule of 72 explains how compounding amplifies that loss into millions over 10 to 20 years.
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
Before You Talk to a Buyer:
The decisions that move the most tax dollars get made in the year before a land sale, not at closing. Here's the checklist we walk every landowner family through 12 to 18 months out.
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
How a DST Works When You Sell a Ranch
A plain-English guide for ranchers selling appreciated ground. How a Delaware Statutory Trust lets you defer capital gains through a 1031 exchange, step back from management, and aim for potential monthly income.
Tax Strategy · 7 min read
When Drought Forces a Cattle Sale:
Tax tools that may help ranchers handling a forced cattle sale in a drought year. Farm income averaging, weather related deferral, prepaid expenses, and how the land side fits in.
How a 1031 Exchange Works
The mechanics: intermediaries, deadlines, debt replacement, basis and recapture.
1031 Exchange · 8 min read
What's a 1031 Exchange? How does a DST fit in the equation?
How 1031 exchanges defer capital gains, the IRS rules you must follow, and how DSTs simplify debt, diversify investments, and protect your legacy.
1031 Exchange · 6 min read
The Qualified Intermediary (QI):
A 1031 exchange has to flow through a Qualified Intermediary. Touch the proceeds yourself and the exchange fails. Here's what a QI does, what to look for, and why the choice matters more than most landowners realize.
1031 Exchange · 7 min read
1031 Exchange Debt Replacement Explained:
How Delaware Statutory Trusts use built-in non-recourse debt to satisfy the IRS's 1031 debt-replacement rule and protect your legacy.
1031 Exchange · 8 min read
Splitting a 1031:
You don't have to put 100% of a land sale into a DST. Split exchanges let you take some cash at closing, pay tax on that portion, and roll the rest into a DST tax-deferred. Here's when it makes sense for landowner families.
1031 Exchange · 5 min read
Recourse vs. Non-Recourse Debt: What Investors and Landowners Need to Know
The difference between recourse and non-recourse debt, how each impacts your liability, and why DSTs favor non-recourse financing for 1031 exchanges.
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
Section 1245 vs. 1250 Depreciation Recapture:
Real estate depreciation recapture (Section 1250) rolls into a 1031 cleanly. Equipment, livestock, and stored grain depreciation recapture (Section 1245) often does not, and gets taxed at ordinary income rates. Here's the difference, and why it matters at sale.
Alternatives to a 1031 Exchange
Section 1062, installment sales, structured sales, easements, Opportunity Zones and charitable trusts, compared.
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
Section 1062 vs a DST:
Section 1062 from the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act lets farmers pay the tax on a land sale over four with no interest charge written into the statute years. It does not erase the tax. Here is how it compares to deferring the gain through a Delaware Statutory Trust.
Tax Strategy · 5 min read
Structured Sale vs. DST: Which Keeps More in Your Pocket?
Structured Sales delay taxes but don't erase them. DSTs defer taxes, and with a step-up in basis at death, your heirs may never owe Uncle Sam a dime.
Tax Strategy · 6 min read
How Can Farmers and Ranchers Turn Livestock and Equipment Sales Into Lifetime Income Instead of Tax Bills?
Sell livestock or equipment without losing half to taxes. Use a CRUT and Wealth Replacement Trust for income, family security, and legacy.
Retiring and Going Passive
Leaving active ownership without giving up the equity.
Income After the Sale
An honest look at where the proceeds can go and what each option asks of you.
Estate and the Next Generation
Step up in basis, heirs, entities, and keeping the family whole.
Estate Planning · 7 min read
DST Estate Planning:
When a landowner passes, DST interests transfer to heirs at a stepped-up cost basis. The deferred capital gains tax effectively disappears, and the inheritance divides cleanly across multiple heirs without forcing a sale of the family land.
Estate Planning · 6 min read
Multi-Generational Land:
Leaving the family land to multiple heirs sounds fair, until one wants to sell, one wants to hold, and one moved away decades ago. DSTs let each heir inherit a clean, separate share of the proceeds and decide for themselves.
Estate Planning · 7 min read
How Can You Keep the Farm or Ranch From Splitting the Family?
Why common entity structures (LLCs, corporations, partnerships) often backfire when land passes to heirs, and how DSTs give families breathing room.
Minerals and Royalties
Mineral rights, royalty income and the 1031.